Donovan Keaton
Donovan Keaton (“'Don Keaton'”, or simply "Keaton") is a worldly, yet timid pangolin under the effects of the extraterrestrial DNA acceleration virus. He is the most advanced out of the known animals affected, and is the co-eponymous main protagonist of Keaton & Jackson. Personality Keaton is basically a solitary person that's forced to be social. Keaton is a very logical and responsible person. Not that he's an absolute wet blanket, but Keaton's priorities are usually objective. Like many of the other pangolins, Keaton is often seen hunched over balanced by his tail, and fiddling around with his claws in standby. However, not like many, Keaton is a start of a new pangolin humanoid species due to extraterrestrial DNA amplifying the evolutionary process within him and many other of the nearby wildlife, he is a mark of the future. His increased mental capacity paves the way for intelligence and psychological benefits, but also paves way for insecurity and overthinking. He believes he is as much of a human as the rest due to this, but all the world sees him as is a scaly cryptic talking animal with a big head. Keaton is friendly to most everyone, and attempts to maintain a patient and empathetic demeanor. He often tries to keep peace of mind, but he is often tested and weighed on at a constant rate by most of those around him, and it doesn't help that he can barely get any time alone or any time to really mentally register his newfound life as an illegal refugee. He constantly needs to go outside of his own nature to stay alive. He has a tendency to let a bout of anger slip every so often at a bad moment, be it an uncalled zinger or a mock sexual pass. However, he has a relative mastery of self-control and the patience of a saint, thankfully, although it is sometimes to a fault. He’s more well-versed in common sense and much more sophisticated than his two wacky-as-hell adopted interstellar brothers, and is often dragged along on their extraterrestrial escapades. He often finds himself babysitting Jackson and Vinny on their batshit insane misadventures human research. Keaton is not a very masculine type, that combined with his modest and shy personality leads many to believe he's of homosexual persuasion, which mildly bugs him. He can sometimes be obsessive and timid, and he sometimes cares a bit too much about what people think of him, much to the annoyance of his best friend, Jackson. Jackson and Vinny often want Keaton to lessen his focus on work or objectives, and have a little fun every once in a while. Although, while Keaton makes an effort to let go a little, he has a difficult time taking his mind off of worries or making time for anything personal. Keaton is anxious from time to time. Despite his independent personality, he is quite dependent on coffee, and often gets embroiled up in a rowdy and vigorous burst of energy after consumption, a total 180° to his normal behavior. He thinks a little too much, and digs too deeply into subjects that shouldn't matter to begin with. Keaton will relentlessly pick apart at any subject until he gets to a solid and concrete answer. Keaton is a rationalist, and a huge nerd. To maintain a sense of security, he attempts to discard any vulnerability. He doesn't exactly want to be depended on like this, but thanks to the fact that he's genetically one step ahead of the rest, he can't exactly just screw off when they look to him for direction. This, among many other things, make him wonder if he'd have been better off without being intelligent. Overall, Keaton stands as the most laid-back, understanding, intellectual, insightful and evolved member of the bunch, and can easily see a solution to just about any problem, and simply wants the people to stop pestering among themselves and do the right thing, an honorable man. He’s the mark in the middle of the evolutionary line of animal to humanoid, and possibly best big brother you could ask for. His bad practices are only due to the situation he finds himself in, and is in the interest of protecting those around him and himself from danger. Despite his uncouth actions in aim of survival, he strives to be a good person/pangolin thing, and holds out for the world to get better. If not just for him, then for his newfound inter-species and inter-worldly family. He's a leader, whether he's prepared or not, whether he likes it or not, and he always manages to dig his way out of hardship. History He was born in Africa, and was left orphaned at a young age until he was saved by a zoological garden, which held him in uncomfortably high regards as a main attraction due to the scarcity and the unique factor of his species. He was also a common choice for the pangolin conservation project, and has dozens of offspring in China and Africa as a result, all of which he'll never get to even see. The few that he was able to relocate, couldn't recognize him thanks to the virus. Due to the abundant use of privacy invasion used to extract his reproductive fluids for conservation, Keaton became self conscious and anxious, and he keeps clothes on at a daily basis. Keaton also suffers from a fear of being watched, as he had zero privacy in the high security zoo he broke out of. Keaton has also shown a more mischievous side when dealing with nuisances. If he’s ever overly frustrated with someone, he would put his psychological knowledge to work, mentally manipulating the individual to neutralize their annoyance. Given that he spent his childhood hiding from poachers until he was taken in, he had to be smart and clever to stay in tact. He still has nightmares about the lonely barren (unless a predator or poacher swings by) wastelands where most of his youth took place, and still thinks of the offspring he fathered that were left behind after breaking away from the zoo following rumors of the fact that he can talk like a human. But he also keeps in mind that he's evolved past that, and nothing could ever change it back. When the DNA acceleration virus infected him, it changed his physical appearance slowly and steadily, and when word began to spread that one of the keepers heard him speak in English, Keaton's safety was in question. That is, until he had disappeared from his exhibit the day after that was first heard. There aren't many details on how the pangolin escaped or where he went, but there were footprints of what appeared to be a large crow or a bat in the exhibit. Physical Description Due to his sturdy, copious scales and his razor-sharp claws, Keaton comes off as a monster or a bad-ass (quite the contrary, really.) Keaton’s back is covered head-to-tail in crimson red keratin scales, serving as his primary method of defense, especially when curling up. His top scale is typically angled slightly upwards, though not all the time. He has black eyes with glowing white irises, indicative of acquired night vision due to prolonged time spent in a nocturnal habitat and underground. His regular vermilion skin is only seen on his muzzle, and occasionally his belly. His torso and legs are mainly covered in his woolly turquoise sweater. Due to the displeasure of swallowing gravel, Keaton instead opts to wear sharp dentures, with which he may break down food. Keaton also has a tail that is as long as the rest of his body, which he often carries Jackson or Basil around on. His tongue is also quite lengthy, and he uses this appendage to trap unwitting ants. Keaton’s head scales were made to resemble a sun, a design choice to compliment Jackson’s moon theme. As Jackson's design is more outlandish, Jackson's is more reserved and compact, which is very representative of their personalities. * Keaton is occasionally seen wearing sweaters aside from his usual turquoise one. Gallery Promotional Art Keaton_Thumbs_Up.png Don Keaton Perplexed.png Don Keaton Pointing.png Don Keaton Ranting.png Don Keaton Mocha.png Don Keaton With Coffee.png Don Keaton Cranky.png Don Keaton Tired.png Don Keaton Approval.png Misc. Images Jackson, Keaton and Mr. Happy.png Keaton's Giant Pencil.png Background Information * As a youngun’ in the zoo exhibits, he was a continuous victim of a prank in which he wakes up with an apple stuffed in his mouth, as a crack at how pangolins are poached and cooked for sustenance. * Due to the abnormality of his appearance and the scarcity of his sources, he is occasionally rumored to be an extraterrestrial or a baby dragon. * He accidentally breaks or scars the things he handles, on account of his claws. ** This is beneficial in a struggle, as he can simply pierce and tear away at any enemy that attacks, along with his scales serving as defense. He's like a tiny swordsman. * He has difficulties with being mistaken for a blue hedgehog. Production Information * Keaton's personality is based around a pangolin's habits, background and appearance, taken to an extreme. His entire personality is a pun. * Don Keaton’s name is a pun on “Donkey Kong”. **The last name alone being a pun on “keratin”, the make-up of a pangolin’s scales. *Since designing a body for Keaton was difficult at the time, he was instead put in a sweater, also shouting out to Dante Hicks ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerks Clerks]) and early concept art of Ren Höek ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ren_%26_Stimpy_Show The Ren & Stimpy Show]). *When the series was initially conceived, Keaton was originally a Sandslash. Category:Animal Category:Male Category:Keaton & Jackson